Highland Ninja
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: At the Valley of the End, Naruto really did die. Now he is an Immortal and must learn very quickly what that means without revealing to the Village or anyone else what he is. Naruto/Highlander Crossover AU.
1. Prologue

Title: Highland Ninja

Author: Joshua

Disclaimer: Naruto, unfortunately, is the creation of Masashi Kishimoto, which means that I can't really make any money off this story, but thankfully he can't sue me either. 'Immortals', of the Highlander genre were originally credited to writer Gregory Widen, who wrote the original "Highlander" film. There are more and more writers that contributed to the Highlander genre and to the mythos of the Immortals, but let's just leave it at that, as for this first part there is no Macleod Clan (so to speak), no Methos, no Watchers, no Prize. Colin Macleod is drawn from the anime film "Highlander: The Search for Vengeance" and technically he's an honorary member of the Macleod Clan, not quite the same as Duncan and Conner.

Summary: At the Valley of the End, Naruto really did die. Now he is an Immortal and must learn very quickly what that means without revealing to the Village or anyone else what he is.

Prologue:

He was wet.

He was wet and the sun was shining in his face. Either one of these facts would have been enough on their own, but both together immediately drove him to consciousness. The sudden urge to gasp in new breath and expel the water, and blood, from his lungs just made it that much more urgent.

"Hyeeeehhhhh! *gasp* KOFF! *cough* *gag* *cough* Koff, koff, GAAAHHHH! Whu...? What happened...?" he found himself asking after arching his back and almost choking on his own puke until he could roll over onto his side. When he'd finally caught his breath and had enough sense to look around, he found himself on the shore next to two giant stone statues with a waterfall between them.

There was also evidence of a battle having taken place recently.

"Oh yeah, now I remember," he muttered, his voice sounding strange to his own ears, but he blamed it on how lousy he felt. "Damn Teme, you actually were trying to kill me..."

Slowly, feeling his body ache with every movement, he got to his feet, just focusing on standing for the time being until he'd regained enough of his balance to walk without stumbling. He still stumbled a couple times, but all things considered it was a miracle he was on his feet at all. He walked back and forth a couple times, working out the stiffness and soreness he still felt in his arms and legs until he was practically jogging. Taking a deep breath, he frowned when he felt his clothes stretch tight over his body, as though they'd shrunk or something.

Looking down at himself, he saw that wasn't far from the truth. His jacket was a goner, plain and simple. The dark blue shirt he wore beneath it was torn and stretched tight against his torso, though the chest area was little more than tatters with two giant holes through it. His pants on the other hand, were the oddity. He normally had to roll them up so they didn't catch on his feet, but now they felt super tight and actually only went as far as the upper third of his calves, already unrolled.

"What the...?" he trailed off, still hearing something... off with his voice, and he was no longer feeling like a drowned rat so he couldn't just fob it off as swallowing too much water or something like that.

Quickly, he raced over to the riverbank and looked down at his reflection in the water. Then he almost fell in from the shock of what he saw. It was definitely his face, tanned complexion, 'whisker' birthmarks on both his cheeks, vivid blue eyes and short, spiky yellow-blond hair. Except the face looking back at him was that of a young man, a teenager at the youngest, someone in his early 20's at the oldest.

For starters, he remembered he used to have a cherub like face with baby-fat around his fact and neck, also a short stubborn chin and a small forehead. Now, he saw the reflection staring back at him had a strong, angular profile. The same stubborn chin, but less rounded and more pointed and strong looking. His face had grown in comparable size to the rest of him, just little things, subtle signs of physical maturity that a 12-year-old lacks. Yet is all too present in a 16-18 year old body, which, judging by his new 5'9" height, longer limbs, and bigger hands... actually, (he quickly checked) just about _everything_ was bigger now... that's roughly how old he looked now.

"How long was I out for?" he asked, examining every detail of his new body before looking at his surroundings. The battle damage was all still fresh, some of it not even an hour old! There was no way he could have been here the number of years his body seemed to have aged.

"What is going on here?"

"That's what I'd like to know," a cold voice spoke from right behind him.

He immediately spun around, his eyes widening in recognition and surprise.

"Kakashi-sensei?" he asked the thin silver-haired ninja standing there, kunai poised for attack.

Kakashi's only uncovered eye widened with it's own shock, the rest of his face covered with a mask and his Konoha headband tilted to cover his left eye. He numbly put away the kunai and stood straight, the words slipping from him before he could properly control his emotions.

"N-Na-Naruto?" Kakashi blurted out in a stunned stupor.

"What's happened to me?" the blond teenager asked the older ninja, holding out his hands for help.

"..." Kakashi took a long minute to properly compose himself and drag his emotions back under control.

"Where's Sasuke?" the jounin finally managed, once he'd taken in enough of the situation to extrapolate what he suspected.

Naruto wasn't sure whether to be disappointed, depressed, or simply understanding. He decided to go with all three, though he directed the disappointment more at himself than his sensei for choosing the traitor over the student he still had that was asking for help. He lowered his eyes in shame, his wet bangs shading his eyes and the rest of his posture spoke volumes. Kakashi sighed.

He stepped forward and put his hand comfortingly on Naruto's shoulder.

"It wasn't your fault," Kakashi told him. "And we will find out what has happened. But right now we have to focus on the mission at hand. Where's Sasuke? What happened?"

Naruto let out a sigh and nodded, quickly composing himself as a ninja of Konoha on a mission, because that's exactly what he was. He quickly, using as few words as possible, gave a full report to his Jounin Sensei, starting with when he and the others had left the Konoha Gate, leaving out the battle details and just mentioning when they encountered the enemy and when one of them had to stay behind. Finally he went on to say that he chased Sasuke, who had been released from that barrel they'd been keeping him in, here to this valley and they talked for a few minutes, Sasuke attacking him a number of times while Naruto just tried to get him to stand down. Finally, Sasuke transformed fully and Naruto channeled enough of the Kyuubi's chakra that it seemed to flow over him like a cloak of armor and they each threw one last Chidori/Rasengan, respectively, at each other. Naruto admitted to shifting his target at the last second from mid-torso to a swipe across Sasuke's headband. He also mentioned, after Kakashi prompting him for the _full_ report, that Sasuke's aim did not shift and pierced him through the heart.

This took no longer than five minutes, not even that long as Naruto often shortened the terms for what actually happened, but Kakashi got the picture nevertheless. Meanwhile, Pakkun, Kakashi's dog-summons, had been checking all over the area, even up on the cliff-face and the forest on both sides of the river. Finally, the little brown dog came back to his summoner and told him the bad news.

"It's no good Kakashi," the small bulldog shook its head, "The rain washed away all the scents leading to and away from here. There's still some chakra lingering in the air, but even that's almost gone, and only around the waterfall itself. Everywhere else... He's gone, Kakashi. I'm sorry."

"..." Kakashi sighed, nodding his head once. "It's not your fault either, Pakkun. I... I was too late. Again. Come on, Naruto. There's nothing more we can do here."

"But Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto immediately protested. "I only need a few more minutes rest. With you and Pakkun here now... The mission's not over yet! We can still bring Sasuke back! I promised Sakura-chan!"

Kakashi looked his student in the eye, then shrugged.

"Fine, I'll look for him myself if I have to—!" he turned away and was suddenly cut off by a blow to the back of the head. Kakashi was already there underneath him, lifting the now much larger boy onto his back.

"I don't know if you'll ever forgive me for all the wrong I've done to you, Naruto," Kakashi whispered as he and Pakkun leapt into the trees, heading back towards Konoha, "Sasuke's gone. I had thought that I might be able to redeem myself if I trained him to be a strong ninja. I was wrong. I'm... sorry...."

A lone tear fell from beneath the jounin's headband, though his right eye was dry as bone.

Only ten miles away, right at that moment, a heavily injured and weakened, soaking wet Uchiha Sasuke, stumbled across the border between Fire and Rice Countries, following the call from the tingling mark on his neck, drawing him to the one that would give him power. The power to avenge his clan. The power to kill a certain man.

The thirteen-year-old boy paused, briefly looking back the way he'd come, where he'd just left the one he'd called his closest friend to die. He was still living when he'd climbed out of that valley in the rain, and then there was that flash of lightning just before he'd gotten out of sight and then the crimson flash and cries of death, but seeing as he did not suddenly gain the Magenkyo Sharingan, he knew that Naruto was still alive. He couldn't explain it, but he knew it just the same. It probably had something to do with the concussion he had.

He turned back forward and continued to stumble along, following the urges of the Cursed Seal to the lair of the one that had made it, Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin, and did not look back again.

TBC...

Please Review And Leave Comments! I Always Reply To Each Review, So If You Have Questions, They Will Be Answered! : )

– Joshua "The Evil Guy"


	2. He Cannot Die

Part One: _He Cannot Die_

_Konohagakure_

_Hokage Tower_

_One Week Later_

Naruto sighed.

It had been over a week since the mission where his life had abruptly and suddenly turned on its end. It had been more than a week now since Sasuke had been taken from the Village, and then walked away from it under his own power in the end. It has also been a week full of tests, probes, blood taking, exams, and having both Tsunade and Jiraiya poke and prod him all over off and on for the entire week.

For some reason, despite being in perfect health, though he'd heard some of the nurses say that it was _because_ he was in perfect health, he'd been restricted to the Konoha Hospital for the majority of that week, only able to go out for a few minutes at a time, and occasionally to have lunch with Iruka-sensei. They didn't let him go all the way to Ichiraku Ramen unfortunately, but he and his former Academy Instructor were allowed to take their meals with them up to the roof. He wasn't the only one from that mission that was staying in the Hospital, sadly. In fact, only Shikamaru had been discharged after a single night of observation. That didn't mean he wasn't there just as much as the rest of them though.

Now, finally, Naruto had been summoned to the Hokage Tower, alongside the rest of his team, which now only included Sakura and Kakashi. The first time Sakura had seen him after the mission, she'd actually apologized for intruding and left before coming back a half an hour later, still wondering if she had the right room. After staring at his face for a few minutes, she'd goggled and tried multiple times to dispel an illusion, only for nothing to happen.

She wasn't the only one, he'd noticed, that was surprised and often stared at his new look. On Jiraiya's and Kakashi's advice, he'd put together a new outfit, seeing as how all his old clothes would no longer fit him, and in an odd display of generosity, they'd bought all the clothes he could possibly need, only asking that they help him out in choosing an outfit.

Currently, he was wearing a form-fitting, yet still loose, pair of navy-blue pants, a navy t-shirt with a black full-sleeved unbuttoned shirt over that, and an old dirty-orange armored vest Kakashi found laying around somewhere. Over that, Jiraiya produced a full-length armored trench coat, colored the same orange as his jumpsuit had been only with navy-blue flames embroidered along the bottom edges and sleeve cuffs. On the back a series of kanji were stitched that read "Future Hokage" in bright gold. He'd also had to get a new headband, choosing to get one with black cloth and extra-long bands that trailed down his back.

On his way to the Tower from the Hospital wearing his new outfit, Naruto noticed quite a few people giving him double-takes, and he'd seen more spit-takes since that time he'd pranked the Hyuuga by dying their robes to match his favorite color. A few people, he also saw, seemed to get tears in their eyes and glanced frequently up at the Hokage Monument before turning back to just stare at him. To be quite honest, it was freaking him out.

"Oi, baa-chan!" Naruto shouted the second he slammed open the door to the Hokage's office. "What's the meaning of keeping me locked up for a week at that horrid place?!! You may like it with all those freaky smells and clean walls and stuff, but it just freaks me out I tell ya! You had no right to make me suffer like that! So what if the mission wasn't a complete success, just say the word and I'll go drag Sasuke back here kicking and screaming if I have to!"

"..."

The stunned occupants of the room all just stared at him, whom happened to include all the rookie genin teams of Konoha, their Jounin Senseis, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune, Tonton (Tsunade's pet pig), as well as Iruka, Anko, and some guy that was turned away from him, facing the balcony windows. He only noted that because he was somebody Naruto did not know, and he was standing as far away from Naruto as was possible at the moment and still be in the room.

"What?" he finally blurted out, uncomfortable with the strange silence after his outburst.

"You were right," Tsunade said to Jiraiya. "It's uncanny how much he looks like him now. Have you had any luck, Jiraiya?"

"None," the white-haired sage sighed. "There's no explanation for it either, at least none that is obvious."

"Uh... what's going on?" Naruto asked, taking a few steps into the room.

"We're discussing..." Tsunade started to answer him, but Naruto didn't hear the rest of what she said as a sudden vibrating buzz filled his head.

If he wasn't already used to odd sensations and overwhelming pain from chakra burns and chakra exhaustion, he might have collapsed in pain in the first few seconds. As it was, he just stopped, his face went pale and he bent over, grasping his head as his brain felt like it was being overloaded with... something! And if that weren't enough, his chakra began to respond with the same overwhelming vibrating buzz, starting at his extremities and transferring the vibration throughout his entire frame so it was like his entire body were a piece of dust on a drum that was being hit by hundreds of people, one right after the other in a never-ending cycle of vibration and noise.

Naruto's eyes immediately locked onto the stranger in the room, who'd spun around with shock written on his face. The man was tall, around six feet at a glance, with shoulder-length light brown hair, held back by a simple red bandanna, the ends of which trailed down to the middle of his back. He wore a beaten trench coat, worn down to a mixed brown and gray from weather and abuse. Beneath it he had on a black tank top, mauve camo-pants, and heavy-tread combat boots. At his waist, other than the ornate belt-buckle, Naruto noticed a serviceable katana, sheathed in a black scabbard.

The instant their eyes locked onto one another, the 'Buzz' dropped to almost nothing, though Naruto could still faintly detect it, much like he could sense chakra most of the time. No longer overwhelmed by the sensation coming from his head and his chakra, Naruto reacted instantly, drawing two kunai from hidden pockets in a flash and regarded the stranger with extreme caution. For a ninja, that was everything short of attacking outright.

"Who... no, _what_ the hell are you? What did you just do to me?" he demanded.

There was a general outburst for Naruto to calm down and everyone berating him for trying to assault a guest of the Hokage and other general ruckus, but the older-looking blond ignored it in favor of keeping his eyes on the unknown in the room that he sensed a threat from, however limited or subdued that threat might be was irrelevant, though he could tell that the man was not an active threat, otherwise Naruto wouldn't have bothered with kunai and gone straight for a Rasengan, putting himself between the stranger and everyone else in the room. Finally, everyone quieted down when the stranger spoke out loud, regarding Naruto.

"... Not bad," the man chuckled. "Good instincts too, by the way. I am Colin Macleod, an old friend from across the seas. I was told, by another old friend, to come back to Konoha as soon as I could and to have a few words with the active Hokage. I am not a threat to anyone here, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto started, then slowly put away his weapons, before finally asking, "How do you know my name?"

"I told him your name! Why do you think I asked for you to come here, gaki?" Tsunade snapped at him, slamming her hand on the desk, drawing everyone's attention towards her.

"Eh," Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Sorry, baa-chan."

Tick marks started bursting out all along Tsunade's head as she struggled to maintain her temper.

Naruto helped immensely by switching from his normal personality to shinobi-serious with his next words. "Macleod-san, would you mind telling me what you just did to me? And I know it was you."

"Like I said, good instincts," Colin chuckled briefly. "The short of it is quite simply, the only reason I am here in Konoha is to tell you, Uzumaki Naruto, that your... Bloodline Limit, your _Kekkai Genkai_ has been activated. It happened after your battle with the one called... Uchiha Sasuke. I honestly don't know who that is or what happened, but the one that asked me to come here at this time gave me that information and said it would explain some things for you."

"Wha... I-I... I have a Kekkai Genkai?" Naruto mumbled, shock overriding his system.

Everyone else in the room were experiencing their own levels and variations of shock at this. Amongst Naruto's fellow genin especially. The adults among the group were, of course, just as shocked to hear this, with only two exceptions in Tsunade and Jiraiya, but they were all much more controlled in their reactions.

"WHAT?!!" Neji, Kiba and Choji all screamed at once.

"YOSH! Naruto-kun now burns with the Flames of Youth in a New Light!" Lee exclaimed.

"YOSH! CONTINUE TO WORK HARD NARUTO-KUN! IGNITE YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH SO ALL MAY SEE IT!" Gai shouted at top volume. This was immediately followed by Lee and Gai's usual little song and dance.

"Say WHAT!!?!" Ino, Sakrua and Tenten screamed, then began to belittle and deny Naruto's 'claim' to having a bloodline limit, adding to the general noise of the room. Shizune was demanding an explanation from Macleod, and Tonton was squealing loudly in all the noise.

Besides the Hokage, the Toad Sage, and the stranger, only Hinata and Shino remained quiet throughout all of this.

Finally, enough was enough and Tsunade silenced the room with a shouted, "SHUT UP!!" coupled with her shattering her desk into tiny wood splinters with a slow (for her) punch. Instant quiet.

Naruto took advantage of the quiet, before anyone else could stop him or think to ask their own questions. He looked the stranger right in the eye and demanded to know, "What do you mean I have a Kekkai Genkai? What is it? And how the hell do you know about it, huh?!"

Colin grinned, like he were watching some private play put on for his personal enjoyment. After a few seconds, he answered the blond ninja, "As I told you, I was told what to tell you by another... old friend. You may meet him some day, but all you really need to know about him is that he knows a lot about you. Meanwhile, I know a lot about your... Kekkai Genkai, which I'll tell you more about later. In private."

"Actually, since this concerns my student," Kakashi started to say, "I feel I have the right to..."

"When I say in private, I mean in private," Colin interrupted in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "If Naruto wants to tell you later, that's his choice. I am to tell Naruto, alone, the information he needs to know. Anyone else... well, let's just say I'm not in the mood to play games today and leave it at that."

"Kakashi, stand down," Tsunade snapped when it looked like the Copycat Ninja was about to do something stupid. "Jiraiya and I both know the details of Naruto's bloodline limit, though neither of us knew he would receive it until it activated one week ago. And since we're talking about it, let me make this perfectly clear right here and now." She stood to her feet and put her fists on her shapely hips, glaring at everyone equally, save a select few who got extra glares.

"No one in this room is to question Naruto about his bloodline limit, whether that's to reveal it or just to talk about it. Anyone that disobeys this DIRECT ORDER, will be doing D-Rank missions for the rest of their career! Do I make myself clear?"

"HAI HOKAGE-SAMA!" the room practically roared in fearful reply.

"Good," Tsunade was suddenly all sweetness and smiles. "Now that that's out of the way, Macleod-san, you may take Naruto at your leisure once our next bit of business is done. Until then, I ask your patience."

"I've got lots of patience," the man dully replied, turning back to look out the windows.

Naruto was kinda creeped out and reminded of Sasuke at the same time.

"Naruto!" Tsunade yelled to get his attention, once she had it, she ordered, "Give your full report, now!"

"H-hai!" Naruto saluted and the proceeded to give a detailed account of the mission to retrieve Sasuke, much more detailed than his summary to Kakashi on the day of, which he also included in his report to Tsunade, causing his sensei to look down shamefully when Naruto reported that he was knocked unconscious when he honestly did need only a few minutes rest before resuming the hunt for his teammate.

"Very well," Tsunade folded her hands before her face, resting her elbows on her brand new desk that had come in while Naruto was giving his report. "I have already heard from the rest of you on this. Unfortunately, seeing as you did not fulfill the mission requirements, I must list this as a failure in the books. Still, there are no lasting casualties, and Naruto has a new ability because of this, making Konoha potentially stronger for the future. Therefore, there will be no consequences, but equally no rewards for this mission."

"Tsunade," Jiraiya reminded her.

She nodded and gestured to him, saying, "Jiraiya will now brief all of you on what we know of Orochimaru's operations as well as his Village Otogakure. Jiraiya?"

What followed was a half-hour lecture on subjects that were too vital to be boring, which Jiraiya further emphasized by not once making a perverted remark. Once the genin were all caught up on the relevant information, Tsunade resumed informing them of the changes this information forced them to make.

"As of this date," she told them, "your teams are officially dissolved. Uchiha Sasuke is being listed as a C-Rank Missing Ninja, to be brought back alive preferably, but there are some that are wanting to make that alive _OR_ dead."

"No! I can bring him back, Tsunade-baachan! I know I can! Just give me a chance!" Naruto begged.

"Enough!" she snapped at him. "As Jiraiya just explained, in a way that even you can understand, Naruto. Sasuke could be at any number of hidden bunkers in any number of countries and nowhere near Otogakure's true location. Until we have evidence of where he is, we cannot send anyone there, let alone a rookie genin that just discovered a Kekkai Genkai he doesn't know how to control yet!"

Naruto blushed, and would have argued further, except for her mentioning what had happened to him. He backed down with a heavy sigh. Seeing this, Tsunade continued.

"Now, as I was saying, your individual teams are no longer in place, therefore you will all be remade into new teams, some of which will be interchangeable. Team 7 will be the ones mostly affected by this as they just lost a member, and as I understand it, Naruto must undergo training for his Kekkai Genkai before resuming his duties." She looked to Colin behind her for confirmation of this.

He nodded, then added, "Not as much as you might think, but he'll be ready after a few weeks to start training himself. Until then though, I'll have to teach him quite a bit. We may also need to leave Konoha for a time, though not immediately, I thought you should be aware."

"Thank you," she acknowledged.

Turning back to the now team-less genin, she accepted a folder from Shizune and listed, "The former Team Ten is now known as Team Asuma and it includes Jounin Sarutobi Asuma as Team Leader, Chuunin Nara Shikamaru as Second and Team Strategist, Genin Akamichi Choji, Genin Yamanaka Ino, and Genin Haruno Sakura. Just so you are aware, Asuma, I have taken Sakura as my apprentice in medical ninjutsu, and Shizune has taken Ino as hers. Keep their _busy_ schedules in mind when making out your training schedule."

Letting out a puff of smoke, Asuma nodded and accepted the folder from the Hokage, along with a mission scroll, which she explained, "Your new Team's first mission is a simple C-Rank, escorting our routine caravan of merchants to the Capitol. It will give you the opportunity to iron out any disharmonies with the team and get everyone used to working together."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," he accepted the mission.

Accepting another folder from Shizune, Tsunade listed off, "The former Team Eight, unfortunately, is being split up. Your team, while impressive in it's early missions, have individually shown they all need more training. All of you. Jounin Kurenai is being temporarily assigned as co-leader of Team Asuma for their next ten missions. Genin Hyuuga Hinata, your father has petitioned to have you removed from the active roster so you may receive more training in your clan's taijutsu and ninjutsu arts. I'm hereby approving that, putting you on extended training leave for one month. Get stronger sooner and I'll see what I can do."

"Genin Aburame Shino, your clan have submitted the same petition, and I'm also approving that. I look forward to seeing how much the only member of Team Eight to make it to the final round of the Chuunin Exams will do after further training in your clan's arts," she smirked when the cloaked boy seemed to hide even deeper in his coat, possibly blushing.

"Genin Inuzuka Kiba... You suck, you need more training, so because of your teammates, I'm putting you on the same leave just because of that," she glared at him, daring him to argue. He might not have been that smart, but thankfully for the temperamental boy, his dog Akamaru was not and a quick 'Yip!' in his ear calmed the Inuzuka enough for the Hokage to move on.

"In one month's time, we'll see about reforming Team Eight into Team Kurenai, until then, work hard," she said, then accepted another folder from Shizune. "Team Gai, nothing changes for you except that you now have a second Jounin Team Leader, Jounin Hatake Kakashi. Don't give me that look, Hatake. If you want, think of this as your punishment. Consider this a direct order, if any one of you are late by even a single minute, not to mention three hours! Then it will be up to the Primary Team Leader, in this case Jounin Might Gai, to determine your punishment, whatever that may be. That would include you, Secondary Team Leader Jounin Hatake Kakashi. Is that understood?"

"YOSH!" Gai and Lee screamed out loud in one voice.

Kakashi looked like he'd been told the entire Icha Icha series was being canceled as well as every single last copy being burned in the town square at midnight, but he acknowledged the order all the same.

"Uh, and what about me, baa-chan?" Naruto nervously asked her.

She didn't say anything, just jerked her thumb over her shoulder, pointing it at Colin Macleod, still standing by the window behind her.

"Oh yeah," Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"We're done," Tsunade announced. "Dismissed!"

Immediately all the ninja left, except for Naruto, Jiraiya, Shizune and Tsunade herself. Naruto hung around, simply because he was waiting on Colin, who was still just staring out the window.

"Shizune," the Hokage interrupted the silence, "Go ahead and file these. And start Sakura and Ino on the basics this afternoon at the Hospital. I do not want to be disturbed for the rest of the day."

Glancing back and forth between the remaining occupants of the room, Shizune nodded and dutifully replied, "Hai, Tsunade-sama." She then took all the paperwork, and Tonton, with her and left.

Once they were alone, the two Sannin silently regarded the Uzumaki and Macleod respectively. Naruto, for his part, was just nervously waiting because that's what he'd been told to do, but more so because this stranger knew more about him than he apparently knew about himself!

"So," Naruto began the conversation, cautiously regarding the other man, "what exactly is this bloodline limit I'm supposed to have?"

"That was actually a cock and bull story to tell the masses," Colin coldly replied. "I literally was told to say exactly that, when asked to come here. At first I wasn't even going to come near this place, but... I owe the person that asked me to come more than I can ever repay. I want you to remember that, even if you don't believe what I'm going to tell you next, believe that much at least."

Naruto slowly nodded, understanding, at least a little bit, of the kind of relationship and promise the man spoke of. Then he listened as Colin continued speaking.

"You do not have a bloodline limit. You are an Immortal, you cannot die, and you will live forever, unless you lose your head. Oh, and let's go ahead and get the painful stuff out of the way too. You cannot have children, you will never grow old or die of old age while everyone else does, and you're going to have to spend the rest of your immortal life fighting and killing to survive." Colin told him, all in a voice that never changed in pitch or tone.

Naruto stared. He blinked once. Twice. Three times. Then hit himself on the head and asked, "Huh?!"

"He cannot die?" Tsunade asked, sounding both shocked and impressed.

"He, we," Colin corrected himself, "can only die by one method. Decapitation. Anything else, it either heals over, reattaches, or sometimes regenerates. That's where that last part comes in by the way. Immortals fight in what we call the 'Game'. One on one fights, duels to the death where the winner takes the loser's power, their Quickening, that which makes us immortal. And because I know all three of you are dying to know, I am one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two years old."

"No way," Naruto protested, his voice quivering. It was obvious he wasn't talking about Colin's age.

"I have lots of ways I can prove what I said, but we'll use the less painful and humiliating ways first," Colin sighed. "Ask Jiraiya and Tsunade when they first met me. This is not the first time I've been in Konoha. In fact, it's my fourth."

"I don't remember seeing you before," Naruto remarked, scratching his chin and trying to recall where he'd seen Colin's face before. "But I'm not really that good with faces!"

"Naruto," Jiraiya spoke, his voice quite serious, with none of the usual light, perverted tones.

"Huh? Oh right, so Ero-sennin, when was the first time you met ji-jii here?" Naruto chuckled.

"Twenty-five years ago, when I first made jounin and a few days before I took my first genin team," Jiraiya replied, all business, his arms crossed and his eyes steady. However much Naruto wished it, he knew the pervy sage was not lying.

"That... that's not possible..." Naruto stuttered, looking back and forth between Jiraiya and Colin. "Unless... you're using a genjutsu, like Obaa-chan does!"

"Genjutsu?" Colin turned and regarded the Hokage.

She was blushing, but hid it by putting her fists before her face in a contemplative pose. "Naruto," she regained the young Immortal's attention, "My genjutsu is unique to me alone. Even if I were to teach it to everyone in Konoha, with only a handful of exceptions, no one would be able to do it, even if they worked their whole lives to do just that. Not even Shizune can do it, and I've been teaching her since she was younger than you were when you first became a ninja. I first met Macleod-san when I was nine years old, 42 years ago. I've seen him three of the four times he's been to Konoha, counting this time. By that time, he was already old enough that my grandfather, the First Hokage spoke to him as you do to Kakashi, as a subordinate to one older and wiser than him. He is telling the truth, and you should believe him."

Naruto's eyes went wide. It was all too much to take in. Stumbling, he sat down heavily in one of the nearby vacated chairs. He was holding his head, half-afraid it was about to blow up into itty bitty gory pieces. The elders in the room remained quiet, giving the youth the time he needed to process all he'd been told so far. They just hoped they wouldn't have to wait too long, as each of them were familiar, in their own way, with how slow Naruto could be sometimes.

Finally, he slumped down, tired of thinking, tired of not understanding. He sighed and got back to his feet, facing the two Sannin and his fellow Immortal with set and steady eyes.

"All right, say I believe you, and I'll still be needing the proof that all you say is true before I do anything else, but..." he paused, regarding each of them in turn before looking Colin in the eyes, "What is it exactly you want me to do with this information in the first place?"

"Well, for the most part, that is up to you," Tsunade answered first.

"As I've said," the Immortal repeated, "I am honor-bound to help you. I am here to train you in the ways of the Immortal. Basically, I'm here to teach you how to survive the Game. After that, I'm leaving. Beyond my lessons and training, what you do is your own choice. You still have free will, it's just you're going to be around a lot longer to exercise it. If you can survive that is."

"If you wanted to, Naruto, you could leave Konoha and go somewhere else, somewhere where you aren't hated, where you'll be appreciated as the hero that you are. You can even go chasing Sasuke if you wanted and there isn't a thing we could do to stop you," Jiraiya told him.

"You could cut off my head," Naruto reminded them.

"Something tells me," Colin laughed, "that with or without me teaching you, you'd find ways of making that difficult for whoever tried. Besides, you're not going anywhere until after I say you're ready. When I do, then you can go wherever you like, or you can tie yourself to this ninja village for as long as you live. Let me tell you this though; nothing lasts forever. Nothing."

Naruto looked down, frowning at the words. He used to just blurt out flat denials and affirmations that he would one day be Hokage. Now he'd found out that, if he survived, he'd live forever! It did not seem the right time for his usual enthusiasm.

"And if I still say that, no matter what, I will still be Hokage some day, then what?" he challenged his new Teacher. "Will you tell me it's a fool's dream, that I should just give up and let a temporary position be filled by someone _temporary_?!"

"No," Colin calmly denied. "You can be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. If you don't mind people knowing you're Immortal, and I know how shinobi guard their secrets, even in their own Villages, then I imagine you could be Hokage for the next thousand years, provided both you and the Village survives that long."

Naruto's eyes snapped up, opening wide with excitement and joy, a grin spreading across his face.

"First question," Colin asked, "have you had any kenjutsu training?"

Thrown by the sudden change in subject, Naruto face-faulted, then sheepishly answered, "Uh, no, not really. Never had to use a sword before, just kunai."

"That's going to change. I'll give you your first sword, but it's just a training sword, until you can buy or make your own. I'm sure you have a lot of questions for these two, and me as well. We'll get started tomorrow, and I'll answer your questions for me then. Meet me at Training Area 12 at 7 tomorrow morning." Having said what he'd come to say, Colin stepped past Naruto and walked out of the room, leaving the blond genin in the room with the two Sannin.

"Is this for real?" Naruto hissed at them after they were alone.

"I don't know about the whole of it," Tsunade quietly admitted, "But I've known Colin Macleod of the Clan Macleod since I was a little girl. He really is that old, and yes, it's really him, not a new body or a different person with the same face and body like what Orochimaru does. He also provided... evidence to Jiraiya and me before we called all of you here, you especially. Immortals are real. Colin is an Immortal, and he claims that you are as well. He also told us that you two would have a... reaction to one another when you came close to the other."

Naruto started, then frowned.

"Is that what it was? A... _reaction_? I don't know what that was! It felt like my chakra was buzzing!"

"Naruto," Jiraiya interrupted his tirade, "I know that you're on information overload right now, but this changes things. Things that we need to talk with you about."

"Like what?" he snapped at them angrily. "That Immortals can't become Hokage?!"

The adults shared a glance, both sighing, whether in relief or exasperation it was difficult to say.

"That's for the future, we need to talk about the present," the Toad Sage insisted. "Bloodline theft is probably not really possible in your case, but that doesn't change the fact that Konoha now has a ninja that cannot die in it's ranks. A ninja that someone like Orochimaru is, if peripherally, aware of. Sasuke went to him willingly, but that was because Orochimaru wants only one thing from him. His body, in three years when he can perform his body-transfer jutsu again. But an Immortal?"

Naruto shivered along with Tsunade as the thought took hold in his mind. It was not a pleasant concept by any scope of the imagination.

"There's also some other information that, well that you need to be made aware of," Jiraiya muttered.

"Jiraiya!" Tsunade exclaimed.

"Things have changed!" he shouted back at her, confusing Naruto further. He'd never seen the two Sannin argue like this, not even when Jiraiya was trying to convince the angry drunk into taking the position of Hokage in the first place. They were scared, he realized. Scared for him, not _of_ him, but _for_ him. And that made him scared.

"What things?" he quietly asked them, sitting back down.

"Some of them, you can probably make a guess at," Jiraiya told him, rubbing his face in exhaustion. "There's an organization, named _Akatsuki _that is made up of S-Rank Missing Ninja. So far, they've mostly been gathering intelligence, resources, and money from various bounties. All for their primary purpose, which as near as I've been able to determine is to collect all of the bijuu."

"The Kyuubi," Naruto whispered, clenching his gut with a mix of rage and depression.

"And all the others," he added.

"Orochimaru _used_ to be a member of Akatsuki," Tsunade told him. "Jiraiya has not been able to figure out why or what caused the split, but after he left, that's when he created Oto, the Hidden Sound."

"So, we find this Akatsuki and we find Orochimaru and Sasuke?" Naruto asked, hope lighting his eyes.

"Doesn't quite work like that," Jiraiya corrected him. "Orochimaru left them, they didn't fire him, he left. You don't leave an organization like Akatsuki without burning a lot of bridges, you understand. If they knew where he was, they'd either hunt him down and kill him for betraying them, or leave him be so long as he stayed out of their business. It's doubtful that any of them would have information on Orochimaru's hideouts, let alone where he would keep his 'new body'."

"Something else that you must understand, Naruto," Tsunade insisted, "Each of these criminals are S-Ranked. That means that they're _at least_ as strong as Orochimaru ever could be. Probably more powerful as if they were weaker than him, that means they would be following him instead of hunting him down for leaving."

"Another thing, in case you're not scared yet, gaki," Jiraiya pointed out, "is that the few times that you've faced Orochimaru in combat, he was either severely weakened, or intentionally holding back. You've never seen him go all out before, remember that."

Naruto put his head on his knees, holding his fists to his temples as what they were telling him was pounded into his brain. They let him sit there for a couple of minutes, just letting him digest what he'd learned so far. Finally, he sat back up, his eyes raw with emotion, and asked, "How does me being Immortal now change things?"

"For one thing," Tsunade answered, "Colin is right. We have no control over you, never did really. You can do whatever you want and we can't stop you. The only people that know how to kill Immortals are myself, Jiraiya, Colin, and now you. No one else in all of Konoha even knows Immortals exist in the first place."

She got to her feet, walked around until she was standing in front of him. "You could go out, hunt down Orochimaru, bring Sasuke back to Konoha and hunt down each and every member of Akatsuki and then come back twenty years later and reintroduce yourself as a relative of the Fourth Hokage, or the Senju Clan or just some wandering ninja wanting to settle down and a few years of service after that become the Hokage then. You could walk out those doors right now and never set foot in Konoha for the rest of eternity if you wanted to, and we can't stop you."

"So, we've decided that what's changed is you," Jiraiya picked up where she left off. "And how we handle dealing with you."

"How you _handle_ _**dealing**_ with me?" he repeated, a bit of a growl in his voice.

"Oh come on gaki, you know you're still just a kid, even if you don't look it anymore," Jiraiya teased, a bit of his usual personality coming through. "Do you see anyone else shouting at Tsunade most of the time? She's the Hokage for crying out loud! And while I am the world's greatest super pervert, and must deal with the consequences of my research sometimes. Do you think _that I let just __**anyone get AWAY WITH CALLING ME *ERO-SENNIN*!!**_"

Naruto winced, then shrugged, looking up at them with his wide, innocent blue eyes.

"So instead of just dealing with it because you're just a gaki that doesn't know any better, and because we like you," Jiraiya was saying.

"But also because we have more experience, Naruto," Tsunade interrupted. "We know how the world works and what a person is capable of and what they're not capable of. So in the past, we've hidden things from you, told you part of the whole story, the part that you needed to hear."

"Or just the parts that we knew at the time," Jiraiya continued. "We've decided to change that."

"Complete honesty," Tsunade added.

Naruto nodded, his brain still overloaded, but he understood what they were saying. Normally he would have gotten all full of righteous anger and started shouting at them for not trusting him and lying to him and stuff. He still might have reacted that way only as long as a week ago. But that was before his fight with Sasuke, and several cold, hard truths were revealed to him. He couldn't take what they were offering, not just yet. He needed time to understand what this all meant and figure out what he was going to do.

"I... I need time to think about this. All of this. Before I go, though... is there anything else that I really need to know?" he asked them, getting to his feet. They exchanged another look.

Jiraiya spoke. "I was going to offer this beforehand either way. Before we knew you were an Immortal, but... I'm going to take you on a training journey, just you and me. If you want to go. I wouldn't be the first Sannin to leave Konoha with an apprentice to train, you know."

"Wow! Really! That's Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, his excitement and child-like glee returning at the mere mention of training. Particularly since the last bit of training he'd gotten from the Sannin was for the Rasengan! "Wait, so... how does me being Immortal change that?"

"It doesn't, not really, we'll still go," Jiraiya was quick to assure him. "But because of this incident, a lot of people are going to make a lot of noise if I suddenly leave with a genin, especially with all that's happened recently. So, let's make a deal!"

"What kind of deal?" Naruto asked, suspicious.

"If you make chuunin in the next Chuunin Exams, we'll go on a two and a half year training journey," Jiraiya told him. "If you don't," he shrugged, "Well, then you'll have to earn the rank the hard way. By a field promotion, which is a _lot_ harder to get than passing the Chuunin Exams."

Naruto gulped, then set his eyes and grinned wide.

"All right then! I'll do it! I'll pass the next Chuunin Exams with flying colors and you're still gonna train me no matter what! Uh... when are the next Chuunin Exams?" he suddenly faltered.

The Sannin both face-faulted.

It was good to see becoming Immortal hadn't changed their friend that much, but they still wished he wasn't quite so... _Naruto_ sometimes.

TBC...

Please Read And Review! If You Have Any Questions Or Comments, They Will Be Answered! : )

– Joshua "The Evil Guy"


	3. Immortal

Part Two: _Immortal_

_Training Area 12_

_The Next Day_

_7AM_

Naruto landed in a crouch as his rush payed off and he made it to Area 12 right on time. If there was one thing that ticked him off worse than perverts, it was being late, and he wasn't about to become a hypocrite. That's what his nindo was based around even! If he said he'd be at some place by a certain time, then he damn well would be there on time!

"You're late," Colin said from a few feet away.

"I AM NOT! I'M RIGHT ON TIME!" Naruto screamed at his fellow Immortal. As with yesterday, Naruto had felt his chakra buzz the closer he got to the meeting point, and it only subdued after he was face to face with his fellow Immortal.

"What is that?" Naruto asked him, once the feeling finally faded.

"Late? Being late means you are not on time, not early, and not where you agreed to be _when_ I told you to be here by. I know they said you were stupid, but come on!" Colin mocked him.

Blushing furiously, Naruto growled at the man and snapped at him, "That's not what I meant and you know it! What is with my chakra, heck my whole body... shaking every time I get near you?"

"Hmph," Colin snorted, walking closer to the tall blue-eyed blond. "Some of us call it the 'Buzz', the feeling we get when another Immortal is nearby. Sort of a homing beacon that we use to identify others of our kind. Most don't really call it anything, they just know what it means and use it as such."

"Use it?" Naruto questioned. Colin nodded.

"I told you yesterday, but a lot was going on and being said so it probably hasn't sunk in yet," he said. "Immortals fight to the death in something that is only known as _the_ _Game_. There are rules to the Game, and supposedly a Prize. The Prize goes to the last Immortal, but for there to be a last Immortal, you kind of have to get rid of all the other Immortals on the planet. Thus, the Game."

"That doesn't really explain anything..." Naruto had multiple sweat-drops on the back of his head and a very confused expression on his face.

"The Game is a death match," Colin told him simply, startling Naruto out of his confusion. "Immortals killing each other in one-on-one duels, the victor of which takes the losers power and strength. Until there is only one Immortal left. That's the first rule, and the basis for the Game; _There Can Be Only One_!"

"What?" Naruto stared, horrified at what he'd just been told.

"Stop looking at me like that, I'm not here to kill you, I'm here to teach you," the older Immortal said.

"First, the rest of the rules," Colin continued. "Duels are one-on-one, but sometimes this rule is broken, so it's more of an honor code. The Immortals fight until one of them cuts off the head of the other, and the winner, or survivor, takes the loser's, or the dead one's power and strength, known as the _Quickening_. Older you are, more powerful you become, likewise if you take an older Immortal's head, you become as powerful as he was plus a little extra. When Immortals meet, they have several choices on what to do. They can fight, but they do not have to, or they can just say hello and move on, or if they've known each other previously, they may hang around for a couple of years, it depends on the situation. When an experienced Immortal finds a newly 'killed' Immortal, if they're not Headhunters, they will train the new Immortal on the basics of how to survive the Game and then move on. The older Immortal is thus the younger's Teacher. To put it simply, I am now your Teacher."

"Oh, something I neglected to mention," Colin added as they walked through the training grounds into the forest, "An Immortal only becomes Immortal after they die for the first time."

"HUH?!!" his Student exclaimed.

"You grow up normally, same as any other person on the planet, and then you die in a violent, horrible death, most likely, and then you get better," he explained. "Simply put, you died. The Fox or whatever healing factor you might have had before did not save you that day at the Valley of the End a week ago. You died, Naruto. And you can 'die' again, but you'll just heal and get up and walk away a few hours later. If you get old enough, or powerful enough, you could probably heal in just a few minutes from all but decapitation."

"I... I need to sit down," Naruto said weakly, slumping against a tree and falling to the forest floor.

"It's a lot to take in," Colin agreed.

"What... what are the other rules?" Naruto asked after a few minutes to process.

"Let's see... One on one fights, winner takes losers power, There Can Be Only One, Student and Teacher, ah! The two Cardinal Rules, rules that even the most ruthless, evil, sadistic son of a bitch will follow, no matter what, even if they were to cost them the Prize eventually, _ALL _Immortals follow these two Rules! You understand?"

Naruto mutely nodded his head.

"The first, with _minor_ exceptions, such as unique individuals, you cannot reveal the truth about Immortals, the Game, the Prize, any of it, to the world. Not to anybody. As I said, there are unique individuals, but if everyone knew?" Colin paused to let him think about it. When he saw that his Student understood, he continued.

"Jiraiya and Tsunade are good examples. Neither one of them knew that the other knew until I showed up this past week. They mostly figured out who and what I was on their own, and only when I had their trust and guaranteed security did I tell them any of my own story, or explain about Immortals at all. That's one of the reasons why they waited a week to introduce us. I got here the day after you and Kakashi got back from the Valley of the End, you know?"

"I do now," Naruto grumbled, surprised. "So, Obaa-chan and Ero-Sennin didn't know about Immortals until this past week, huh? I guess they needed some time to understand it all. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it! I'm going to live forever?"

"You'd be surprised at what you can get used to," Colin chuckled, looking off into the distance. "Don't worry about that for right now. There's still the last, one unbreakable Cardinal Rule."

Naruto straightened in his seat, sensing the seriousness of what was being told to him.

"No Immortal may duel, kill, or harm another Immortal on Holy Ground. It doesn't matter whose or what Holy Ground, if it's revered and worshiped, from a church, to a burial ground, to a Holy Sanctuary, fighting there is strictly forbidden and _no one_ breaks that rule. No one."

Naruto found himself nodding his head, agreeing completely. Then his stupid mouth spoke before his brain could stop it, and he asked, "What happens if you do?" At Colin's glare, he hastily tried to apologize, "I-I mean, the consequences for everything else is kind of obvious, especially since Obaa-chan and Ero-Sennin explained to me why no one should know about Immortals, and the rest is about honor, but... what would happen?"

Colin was silent, his face taut with tension.

"There's only ever been a single record of Immortals breaking this Rule," Colin whispered. "It's just a rumor, but the rumor is enough to discourage any would-be rule breakers from ever considering it. It's not a taboo, Naruto. It's the one Unbreakable Rule that all Immortals follow, no matter what."

"But..."

"You've never seen a volcano," Colin changed the subject, but not really. "And you've never been outside of the Elemental Nations. I have. In a distant land, so far from here that you cannot conceive of just how far it is right now, there was a dormant volcano. It never even had earthquakes, just hot springs and lush landscape. A city was built atop this volcano, thought to be a harmless mountain by that point. They built temples to their gods atop that mountain volcano. Two nameless, forgotten Immortals fought in one of those temples, and they ignored the warning signs, the earthquakes and everything else... until one of them was killed and released the Quickening."

Naruto was silent, rapt with attention as Colin paused in his tale, taking a deep breath, preparing himself for the rest of the story.

"That day, the dormant volcano, with only a single days warning that normally would have been happening for weeks in advance, exploded with more force than you, or anyone else can imagine. The city was destroyed in less than a single day, not a soul survived. Especially not the _winner_ of that duel. None had ever dared break the Rule before then, and since the fools that did so were destroyed, no one else has nor will they."

"Uh... right," Naruto gulped, finally getting back to his feet. "Uh, that all the rules?"

"All the ones for the Game, yes," Colin nodded. "Now we move on to some other things to know about being an Immortal. Tell me, what's your life like here? What have you learned so far?"

_Training Area 12_

_Later That Day_

They spoke for the rest of the morning, Naruto talking about his life and training in the Village and as a ninja so far, as well as Jiraiya and Tsunade's promise to give him more advanced training if he managed to pass the next Chuunin Exams. Colin listened and occasionally made the odd comment here and there.

Finally, the conversation turned more towards what they would be doing for the next few weeks, or until Naruto could figure out enough on his own, whichever came first.

"Learning how to use a sword," Colin stated, laying out a cloth on the ground.

"So, I'll be learning kenjutsu, huh?" Naruto preened, excited at the thought of useful training.

"I didn't say I'd teach you kenjutsu," Colin said to him, pulling over a weapons case he'd already had stashed nearby. "I said you'd be learning how to use a sword. There's a difference."

"Huh? What kind of difference?"

"I'm about to show you. Pick one," Colin told him, then began laying out various weapons, most different kinds of swords, onto the cloth. "Understand, none of these will be your permanent weapon, if you ever have one. I'm just loaning it to you until you find yours, or make your own. I never bothered to learn, but I've known others that have. If you have any questions about the swords, I'll answer them and try to explain what the difference between them is. Then we'll get started. So, go ahead and choose."

"Wow," Naruto stared at all the bladed weaponry arrayed before him.

"We'll start with what you are most familiar with," Colin began, picking up each blade as he told his student a little bit about each type of weapon. "The katana. Often called the sword of the samurai. The katana is characterized by its distinctive appearance: a curved, slender, single edged blade, circular or squared guard, and long grip to accommodate two hands. The katana's unique design and in particular its sharpness require quite a few specialized precautions in handling it. It requires daily maintenance and care, but it is light and rather straightforward in its use and effectiveness. I myself use a katana, but whether you choose to wield one is entirely up to you." He placed the weapon back on the blanket and picked up the next.

"The jian is a double-edged straight sword, known as the gentleman of weapons. One-handed versions have blades varying from 45 to 80 centimeters in length. The weight of an average sword of 70-centimeter blade-length would be in a range of approximately 700 to 900 grams. There are also larger two-handed versions used for training. Though there is significant variation in length, balance, and weight of the jian, the general purpose of the jian is to be a multipurpose cut and thrust weapon capable of stabbing, as well as making both precise cuts and slashes, as opposed to specializing in one form of use."

"Related to the jian, is the dao. Primarily used for slashing and chopping, it is referred to as the General of all weapons. Dao blades are moderately curved and single-edged, though often with few inches of the back edge sharpened as well; the moderate curve allows them to be reasonably effective in the thrust. Many variations exist, and it can be adapted to most styles of martial arts, if you care to learn them."

"These two, as you'll note, are very similar," he picked up two together. "This is called an arming sword. The arming sword is overall a light, versatile weapon capable of both cut and thrust combat; and normally boasts excellent balance. Although a variety of designs fall under the heading of 'arming sword', they are most commonly recognized as single-handed double-edged swords between 30 and 32 inches in length that were designed more for cutting than thrusting. This one is called a side sword. Both slimmer and longer than it's heavier counterpart, it's known as a 'cut-and-thrust' blade. Very lightweight and easy to use, average length about 38 inches."

"Then there's the longsword, related somewhat to the arming sword, the rapier, more a civilian version of the side sword, and the broadsword, a double-edged balanced blade. Then there are the backswords, or single-edged blades. This is a scimitar," he held out a wide-edged moon-shaped curved sword. "This is known as a saber, good for cutting and slashing more than thrusting."

"Besides these, there are other options, such as the battle axe, the hook sword, the staves, even a chain whip if you want to get really fancy," Colin shrugged and gestured to the blanket. "So, make your choice. I'm not going to teach you how to use every single one of them, I'm not that good on most of them anyway. So choose."

Naruto nodded and began considering his options.

He tried every single blade, and even the axe, swinging them around a bit to get a feel for them. Finally, he just settled on the katana. Not just because it was the most familiar looking to him, but all the others just didn't feel right to him, though the dao blade was a close second. Seeing that he actually had two preferences, so to speak, Colin just grinned and left out the katana and the dao blades after packing up the rest.

"I'm not really very good at this kind of thing," Colin admitted. "I don't take many students, but that's a personal preference more than anything else. So you'll have to bear with me. For right now, just watch as I go through my own practice routine, something which you'll have to do regularly. Even Immortals need to practice."

Naruto nodded patiently, having experienced training that he needed to do daily in his ninja career so far.

The rest of the afternoon, well into the evening, Colin showed Naruto all of his practice forms for his own sword, and then showed him how to hold the blade, which turned out to be more effort than either of them had expected. At sunset, after all the instruction had been covered, Colin had Naruto duel him, and then disarmed the blond in a single move and had his blade at the new Immortal's throat before he could blink.

Naruto immediately challenged him to a rematch and it took him two moves before they were right back in the same pose. Then four moves, then six, then back to four with Naruto on his back on the ground, and just before Colin finally called it quits, Naruto surprised him and actually put Colin on the defensive for once... and then still wound up with Colin's blade at his throat. The major difference being that this time, Naruto hadn't lost his sword.

"Good, you finally learned the first lesson," Colin congratulated him, packing up the equipment. "Never EVER let go of your sword. Even if it's broken and in pieces, never let go of your sword. Until you find a new one that is..."

Sweating, gasping for breath, Naruto nodded his head once, before lifting the katana and said, "Again!"

"No, not tonight," Colin pointed to the darkening sky. "Sun's gone down and while we'll eventually get to the training with a blindfold on, you're still too new for fighting blind. You've made more progress in one day than most people could make in a year of study. Don't be in such a rush, besides, at the rate you're learning this stuff, I'll probably be out of here by the end of the week and you'll be able to go back to your life, under the guise that you're just a kid with a very unique bloodline limit. I'll meet you tomorrow morning, bright and early. Same spot, all right?"

Naruto tiredly nodded his head, then made to hand the katana back.

Colin shook his head and waved the offering off. "No, like I said, it's yours until you either find another, or learn how to make your own. By the way, I personally do not do much blacksmithing, just enough to keep by blade in good repair and a few other things. You might want to go into town tomorrow afternoon and see if you can't find somebody to teach you. At the very least you'd learn how to make ninja weapons, and you've certainly got the time to learn now."

"Yeah," Naruto began to grin, "I do! Thanks Macleod-san!"

"Call me Colin," the Immortal called back as they parted ways, then muttered under his breath, "You always have..."

_Training Area 12_

_One Week Later_

"Are the weights really necessary?" Naruto questioned, fingering the stone bands wrapped around his body, gravity seals written all over them. Currently he was standing on two three-foot-high logs, which were precariously balanced on smoothed down stones.

Colin shrugged as he watched Naruto balance himself on the logs, weighted down, and holding both of his two chosen swords, one in each hand. He casually swung his own katana, which Naruto moved his own to quickly block, wobbling a bit, but still maintaining his balance.

"Yes," he finally answered. "You've done well this past week. If it weren't for that trick with the clones that you finally figured out, you might still be learning the basics on how to use your swords. Don't think that means we're done though. Not by a long shot."

"Neither is training to be a ninja," Naruto retorted. "And now I've got a very long life in order to learn both. I just wish that learning didn't involve crazy stuff like this all the time!"

Colin shrugged.

"You're a unique person, Naruto," he said. "Unique people require unique teaching methods. You're an immortal ninja with enough raw chakra to use every single S-Rank ninjutsu in existence and still have enough left over for a shadow clone. You don't learn from reading about it, or by being 'taught' how to do it, like 90 percent of the rest of the world. Instead, you learn by doing and from figuring it out on your own."

"And wearing weights and standing on two logs while you take swings at me plays into this how?!"

"It's very easy to knock someone off their feet," Colin said as an answer. "A little force here, applied pressure there, properly shown how, a five year old could drive an adult ninja to his knees if caught unawares. The most vulnerable you will ever be is on the ground on your back or with your legs cut out from under you. Took me over a hundred years to learn the lesson myself; you must learn how to stand, before you can walk."

"Great," Naruto grumbled, blocking again, this time with his dao as Colin swung at him again, just as slow. He still wobbled a bit, but he was getting better at adapting to the force.

"How much longer are we going to do this?" he asked after another hour of Colin taking slow swings at him. He was still wobbling a bit, but he recovered every time.

"Until you fall, or say you're ready for more," was the short reply.

"Well, this slow stuff isn't going to knock me down, so show me what you've got. Just... don't attack the logs or my legs. I may be impatient, but I know I'm not ready for that yet," Naruto offered.

"Fair enough," Colin said even as he swung a moderately fast swipe at the blond's torso.

"Whoa!" Naruto cartwheeled for a moment before regaining his balance, completely unprepared for the attack. Another ten strokes, only three of which Naruto could actually block, he was on his back with the logs at his side.

"There, you fell," Colin commented. "Now get back up and we'll do it again until you're blocking every strike at that speed. No matter how many times you fall."

"Right, right," Naruto grumbled, setting the logs back up before resuming his stance, swords in hand.

Naruto fell at least a dozen more times before he started blocking every other strike, wobbling like crazy, but managing to maintain his footing. Another hour later, they were having a sword spar with Colin on the ground in front of him and with Naruto perched precariously on two logs atop smoothed stones, blocking or dodging almost every strike. They were still soft strikes, nowhere near full force, nor the amount of power they'd be if this was a real fight, but that's why they call it training.

"Good," Colin suddenly took a step back and let Naruto step down. "You're improving. Now let's try some unconventional training."

"Unconventional?!" Naruto screeched. "What the heck is this then?"

"Conventional," was the short reply.

"#$^&!"

"I'm not sure what that is, but I've fairly sure it's not a nice phrase," Colin teased back. "Follow me."

"Where?" Naruto sullenly asked, sheathing his sword as he ran to catch up.

"You'll see," was the only reply he got.

Less than half an hour later, they were standing at the top of the Hokage Monument, standing out over the still-being-constructed-face of the Fifth Hokage. Colin lead him right up to the edge so that they were only a few feet from open air and a 30-story fall to the ground, and no ledges or trees to break said fall.

"So, uh, what are we doing up here?" Naruto had to ask, looking around nervously, particularly the long drop. Sure, he was a ninja and had mastered surface-climbing, but from this particular point there was no surface to grab onto if he were to fall. He'd also forgotten his grappling line.

"A lesson in immortality," Colin replied with a pleasant smile. "Come over here."

Slowly, hesitantly, Naruto complied until they were side-by-side at the cliff's edge.

"Wow," Naruto looked over the whole of Konoha, admiring the view.

"Beautiful, no?" Colin commented. Naruto could only nod his head.

"You need to learn to appreciate the beauty of the moment, because for us, that moment will come and go like the breeze does for most people. Hang on to these moments, remember them so that you will have them in the years to come. It's the small things that make life worth living, even for an Immortal," he told him. "Heh, I guess that's two lessons in immortality."

Naruto frowned and glanced back at his teacher, then asked, "What's the other?"

"This," Colin said with a smile and then shoved, or more like threw Naruto off the cliff into the open air.

"WHAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHT!?!" he screamed as he fell, tumbling through the air.

At the last possible second, he managed to twist himself around so he was facing the ground, watching its fast approach and then... WHAM! Impact! Pain! And then blackness, the familiar darkness of unconsciousness.

Time unknown after, he felt the pain return, but less overwhelming and more like a bunch of little aches all over his body. He felt a sharp crack in his ribs, heard it to, and then his breathing became easier. After about three minutes of this, and another bunch of cracks, the aches and pains were mostly gone and he was getting uncomfortable just lying there on the ground, so he slowly opened his eyes to see... dirt.

Surprised, he blinked and lifted his head.

Looking again, and then slowly taking in the rest of his surroundings, he saw that he was in the center of a small crater, maybe only as wide as he was tall. He was also lying in a depression of his own body.

Groaning with the strain and the pain of his few remaining aches, Naruto got to his knees and took a better look at where he was. He knew this place, although the crater was new, but the rock wall and group of trees off to his right were still familiar. Looking up, he saw the Hokage Monument from an up close, base-of-the-mountain point of view. More specifically, directly beneath the cliff he'd just been thrown off of!

Growling now, Naruto got to his feet and grabbed his head as an afterthought as the now-familiar buzz went through his system. Turning, he shot a glare at Colin as the older man stepped through the trees.

"Wow, I expected you to still be out for the count," Colin admitted as soon as he stood before the blond.

"What do you mean, out for the count?" Naruto snapped at him. "You just tried to kill me! You nearly did! What kind of lessons are you trying to teach me here?"

"Not tried, and not nearly," Colin grinned, crossing his arms and leaning back against a nearby tree.

"Huh?" he was confused.

"I did kill you and you were dead," Colin pointed at the crater. Naruto turned to look, and had to admit, given that it was half a foot deep into the soil, there was no way he should have survived!

"I know you've recovered from near-fatal wounds already, even before you became Immortal," he told the ninja. "Wounds that would have killed practically anyone else, attacks that were supposed to be one-hit kills, and even assassination jutsu, you've just stood up and walked away from. Maybe spent a week in the hospital for, but never much longer than that. From what Jiraiya and Tsunade tell me, most blamed it on that demon fox that's supposed to be sealed inside of you."

Naruto flinched, but otherwise didn't respond.

"Being Immortal, however, changes things, and you need to learn that," Colin continued. "You _cannot_ die. You'll heal from one-hit-kill fatal wounds in _minutes_ where it would have taken you days beforehand. If you die, you'll be the equivalent of unconscious for maybe a day at the most, depending on the trauma to your body. Then you'll just get up and walk off like nothing happened. This is not a trick, or a joke, or a prank Naruto. This is for real. You. Are. Immortal."

Naruto gulped and it finally sunk in. Sure, he'd understood the words and what everyone had been telling him, and he did believe Colin about everything. Still, there's knowing, and then there's _believing_!

Taking a shuddering breath, Naruto just kept staring at the crater that, only a minute or two ago, he'd been lying dead in. He reached out a hand and felt the earth at the center of the crater. It was still warm.

"You said you didn't expect me to revive so soon," he said to his Teacher. "Why?"

Colin shrugged. "Most new Immortals take a while to heal from injury, opposed to the older or more experienced Immortals you'll find out in the world. A cut will take over a minute to heal rather than instantaneous, and death, well, death can take anywhere from a day to a full year, depending on how bad the death was. By the way, trauma to the head is always worse and takes more time to heal."

"How long was I...?" he couldn't finish the question.

"I pushed you off only..." he glanced at his watch, "Hunh. Seven minutes ago. It took me three minutes to get down the cliff, and we've been talking for almost four now. So I'd guess you were only dead for a minute, two at the most before reviving."

Naruto knew better, though he said nothing. He hadn't been dead for even half a minute. He was different. Even for Immortals, which were as different as they'd ever come, he was something... more.

Naruto's eyes went wide as he realized what made him different. The Fox! The damned demon fox Kyuubi no Kitsune! Except... where was it? Every time Naruto had been about to die or was on death's doorstep, the Kyuubi had spoken to him and shared its chakra with him, to keep him, and it from dying.

Wait a minute...

"Colin," Naruto spoke, his voice strained with emotion. "There's no way to become Immortal except by dying, right? I died fighting Sasuke, that's how I became Immortal? Right?"

"Right," he replied.

"So... say that there was someone, something else living inside me, depending on me to stay alive so that it could stay alive," the blond said, "What would have happened to it when I became Immortal?"

Colin looked down and stared at his young student. The silence remained tense for several long moments between them, until finally, the older Immortal looked off to his left. He seemed to be listening to someone else, and Naruto could have sworn he heard a whisper on the wind, but he couldn't understand it. At last, Colin answered his question.

"It would have died with your body. But it would not have been revived by your Quickening. In fact, it would have been destroyed by your power, as what you describe sounds much like a parasite, and the Quickening destroys all parasites in the body, no matter what."

"Oh," was all Naruto could say to that. Looks like he'd finally finished what the Fourth had started all those years ago. At least he didn't ever have to worry about the Fox getting out anymore, or it's annoying habit of getting him angry and shoving its chakra at him.

"I think we're done for the day," Colin told him. "Meet at the training grounds bright and early tomorrow. And be sure to rest up for it. You're going to need it."

Naruto grinned and nodded. Colin walked off alone.

He got to his feet and considered his options. He wasn't a brooder, like the Emo-Uchiha. He'd also known that he was Immortal for weeks now, and had been training to handle the new challenges he would be facing because of it. He also had the rest of the day off and he'd been meaning to catch up with his friends sooner rather than later.

Smiling to himself, Naruto felt a burden he hadn't even been aware of finally fall away into nothing. He raced off, planning on having some of his favorite bowls of ramen at Ichiraku's before tracking down and catching up with all his friends.

_Rooftop of Hokage Tower_

_One Month Later_

_Dawn_

Naruto stood eagerly across from his Teacher. He currently held his katana in his right hand, while Colin waited patiently with his own blade unsheathed. They both had already taken off their coats and stood apart from each other in shirt and pants, Naruto had even taken off his orange vest-jacket while Colin stood in his tank top and cargo pants.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Colin asked him dryly. Naruto had gotten used to the older Immortal's way of speaking after a month and a half of learning from him.

"Tsunade-baasan says that I'm not allowed to accept any more missions outside of Konoha until you clear me for surviving on my own in case I run into any... unfriendly Immortals, she said. She's let me take some D-Rank and in-village C-Rank missions so I don't find out if I can starve to death, but I can't stand being cooped up like this. If I win this fight, you'll tell Obaasan that I'm trained enough to leave the village?"

Colin nodded.

"_If_ you win this, one way or another, then I will tell Tsunade and anyone else you want me to that your training is finished. But that's a very big if, you understand Naruto?" he remarked. Naruto just nodded, and then saluted with his katana, taking it in both hands and bowing with a nod of the head. Colin returned the salute and they both readied themselves.

They stood across from one another for over a minute, just holding their blades at the ready, their footing sure and steady. Finally, Naruto's impatience was the deciding factor and the sweat in his eyes from the sun was driving him crazy, so rather than blink he charged. Colin charged at the same moment as though expecting it. They both moved faster than normal vision could track, swords cutting the air with a soft whistle of wind.

Sparks flew the moment the katana blades came into contact.

Colin had taught Naruto how to channel his quickening into the sword a little over a week ago, and the young Immortal had discovered that not only did the lightning-like energy increase the durability and sharpness of his blade, but if he channeled his chakra into it as well it was like wielding a natural extension of himself, much like an animal swiping with its claws or fangs. It also made his swords almost unbreakable so long as he was holding onto them and channeling energy into them.

It also made for really cool special effects when their swords crossed!

"Heh, not bad kid, not bad at all," Colin grunted as he held back Naruto's surprising strength.

"Thanks, but," Naruto paused to exhale and adjust his footing a bit, "I don't think either one of us is trying really hard at this point. You went way harder on me in your last training bout yesterday than this!"

"What makes you think that it was our last training bout, huh?" Colin flashed a grin.

"Because," Naruto took a breath and closed his eyes only for a moment, "I'm going to win this little match so I can start being a _ninja_ again!" His eyes snapped open with a feral intensity that made Colin want to reconsider this whole fight. "I'm going to win!"

The young Immortal surged forward with surprising power, forcing Colin back a few steps and then had to dodge as the blond swung his katana with devastating force that cut the air and would have severed limbs if the older Immortal had been even a hairsbreadth slower.

He didn't stop with that and Colin knew he wouldn't, but the blue-eyed blond was striking quickly with no pause, slashing left, right, forward, above, below, anywhere and everywhere practically all at once and it was all Colin could do to dodge and avoid getting cut while looking for an opening to counterattack.

There wasn't one.

Seeing that his pupil wasn't slowing down any time soon, and knowing first hand the ungodly amount of stamina the young Immortal already possessed, Colin changed his strategy a bit and started blocking every other strike and dodging the rest of the time. With each block, he put more and more strength behind his own sword, and he always made sure Naruto felt it every time he blocked.

Naruto grimaced upon receiving the tenth such blow, feeling his hands start to go a bit numb from the force sent through them. Being an ageless Immortal with powers of instant regeneration doesn't mean a thing if his body is still human. Nerves and muscles are attacked the same way, the only difference is that with Immortals, any damage done isn't permanent, but it's still done. Naruto ignored the pain and took a half step back to readjust his grip. He'd learned the hard way to never do that in the middle of attacking or defending.

That half step, however, was exactly what Colin had been waiting for.

Naruto suddenly found himself on the defensive as his Teacher brutally counterattacked with a savage flurry of blows that almost drove him to the ground. It definitely had him retreating in any case, and he couldn't get the room needed to start making attacks of his own again. Blocking and ducking at every swing, Naruto allowed a moment of panic to overcome him and he started sweating and loosened the grip on his sword, backing away even further.

Colin saw this and briefly entertained the idea of taunting his student, but he knew that would just get the kid motivated all over again, and the point of this exercise was to see if he was ready for the real thing when it came. His next attack was aimed at disarming his student and catching him before he knew what happened.

The blades came together once more, Naruto blocking halfheartedly due to his panic, and then Colin went in for the kill, twisting his sword just so, sliding the blades each others sides and forcing the blond's wrist into an angle that forced it to release what the hand gripped. The katana popped free from his student's hand.

What Colin did not expect however, was for the Naruto he was fighting to pop into a cloud of smoke, along with the katana! He spun around in and instant, but it was already too late. The real Naruto stood just behind him, katana in hand and raised so the edge was against the skin of Macleod's neck.

"I know it's not exactly honorable," Naruto said, reaching with his other hand to disarm the older Immortal, who understandably tensed at being so vulnerable all of a sudden, "Using ninjutsu and _Kage Bunshin_ like that. But it's not in the Rules, now is it?"

"No, no it's not," Colin was forced to concede. He often wondered what would happen to the Game if ever there was an Immortal with the ninja skills of the Hidden Countries and decided to go head hunting. Immortals could not use ninjutsu or genjutsu at all, because one had to be able to use chakra, and unless the chakra network was already set up before the Quickening became active, it was nearly next to impossible to change that. Colin knew someone that said he knew of another Immortal that had done it, but they'd never met.

"How did you do it anyway? Make me think I was fighting you when I was really fighting a clone the whole time?" Macleod wanted to know, still with his student's sword against his neck.

Naruto shrugged, "I didn't. I fought you with everything I had. Then I got distracted and you started whaling on me. I did what I always do when pressed," he grinned and removed the blade from his teacher's weak spot. "I came up with the most unpredictable thing I could imagine doing, and then I did it! First time I ever managed to pull it off too! _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ without seals!" He started laughing.

Colin flinched and nearly ran for it right there. If this man were _anyone_ else, the Game would be over today. Whatever chances the rest of them, even the oldest Immortals still out there, none of them could stand against this kid in an adult's body. Not for long anyway.

He started laughing along with his student, taking his sword back and enjoying his friend's victory for what it was worth. "Congratulations, Uzumaki Naruto, you are now the world's first Official Immortal Ninja!"

"YATTA!" Naruto screamed to the heavens, jumping for joy. Colin smiled and felt like joining him.

He didn't though.

_TBC..._

Please Read And Review! If You Have Any Questions Or Comments, They Will Be Answered! : )

– Joshua "The Evil Guy"


	4. There Can Be Only One

Part Three: _There Can Be Only One_

_Hokage Tower_

_Hokage's Office_

_Three Days Later_

Naruto stood at attention, more or less, before the Hokage's desk, decked out in full mission gear, which was considerably different than normal. He stood in his black ninja-style pants and black painted steel-toed boots to match with his Teacher's suggestion that the heavier footwear adds damage to kicks. A red t-shirt covered his torso, covering that was the dark orange armored vest Ero-sennin had gotten for him, as well as the orange and blue flame overcoat. His new Konoha headband, with a long black cloth wrapped around his forehead, keeping his long blond hair in check for the moment.

Running his fingers through the longer yellow mane, Naruto felt he should have gotten a haircut, but the past few weeks training with Macleod-san had eaten away at his time until he'd completely forgotten about it. It now hung to just below his neck, and the bangs would have covered his eyes if not for his headband. It had been suggested he wrap it up in a ponytail, like his Teacher did, or even Shikamaru, but the young Immortal felt that would be too girly. He'd just have to get a haircut after he got back from his mission. That is, if he got a mission. It's what he was here to find out about anyway.

"Uzumaki Naruto reporting for duty, Hokage-sama!" Naruto announced once he saw Tsunade's attention on him.

"I can see that," she observed with a rueful smile. "Macleod-san tells me that you're as ready as your going to get, without waiting another hundred years anyway."

Naruto grimaced, but said nothing. Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that, half expecting a childish explosion of hot temper and selfish pride, yet instead she got a young man calmly accepting criticism and maintaining his composure. She'd have to ask Colin how he did it.

"I trust Macleod-san's judgment, though I would like a demonstration of the results of your training with him. I'll have to set something up like that for later," she commented to herself. "In the meantime, there are three C-Rank missions currently available. One of which I'm sure you'll want to be a part of no matter what, but you'll have to sit around for an extra week first of all. Or I can let you do one of the other two missions beforehand, and if you complete it in time, you can join in on that mission."

Naruto's eyes lit up, and he asked, "Is it to head to Sound and retrieve Sasuke?"

Tsunade frowned, then shook her head. "Not quite. The mission I'm referring to has been proposed by Aburame Shino of Team 8. There is apparently a very rare species of insect, called the Bikochu, which has the ability to track whatever scent it is exposed to upon hatching to the very ends of the earth and back again. Shino has proposed to lead a team to go and retrieve this particular insect from its nesting ground, and if successful, expose it to Uchiha Sasuke's scent."

Naruto grinned with excitement. "Then definitely sign me up for that Baa-chan!" he exclaimed.

"So you do want to sit around for the next week, because that's the soonest Team 8 can leave on this mission, and you would also be taking orders from Shino, as the one with the most knowledge about the mission objective, he would be team leader," she informed him.

Naruto stopped and then took a deep breath to compose himself. "I apologize, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nearly fell to the floor in shock! She _did_ fall out of her chair!

"What are the other two missions that you have available, please?" he requested.

Taking a moment to get over the amazement of Uzumaki Naruto apologizing for being the slightest bit informal, the Hokage pulled out two folders from the stacks on her desk. Holding up one and then the other, she told him, "This one here is a standard retrieval mission. A cake walk by any shinobi's standards and one I feel confident can be handled solo. Even by a genin." She enjoyed Naruto's blush for a moment before continuing. "The other mission is an escort mission. The son of a very powerful nobleman needs a babysitter while going home from Konoha. Normally I would assign no less than two ninja to this, but we're short-handed as it is, and Colin tells me you can handle it."

Naruto nodded, thinking over what he knew about the missions. "If I may, Hokage-sama," he asked respectfully, "What item is it needing to be retrieved, and who is the nobleman's son?"

Tsunade grimaced herself, looking down and away for a minute before answering, "The noble son is named Kunihisa, and the retrieval mission is quite simply that you need to retrieve a treasure that is marked on the map here," she held up the folder for the mission.

Naruto nodded, then grinned and said proudly, "I'd be glad to take both missions Obaa-chan!"

Tsunade grinned and posed the question, "Are you sure you can handle it? And you'll still be back within a week for the mission with Team 8? You'll have to succeed with both missions. If you fail even one of them, then you cannot go on the Bikochu mission, you understand?"

"Sure," he laughed, scratching the back of his neck. "These should be easy anyway, right? I'll probably have them done by the end of today."

"It's a three-day journey to Kunihisa's home," she flatly informed him.

"Well, the retrieval mission anyway. And I'll be back in plenty of time for the mission to find the bug!"

Tsunade sighed, and with some mild reluctance, assigned both missions to Naruto, and put him on the list for the upcoming Bikochu Retrieval mission with Team 8. Then she handed both folders to him.

"You leave tomorrow morning at around 8 o'clock," she told him. "The retrieval mission is open-ended, except that you can't go on the Bikochu mission in a week without completing it, so..."

"I got it Baa-chan," he grinned and read both mission statements. He blinked once at seeing what 'treasure' needed to be recovered, then grinned even wider before creating a shadow clone and handing it off to him. "You know where that is, right?"

"Of course I do!" the clone exclaimed, also grinning. "I'm you, aren't I?"

"See if you can get it back here in an hour or less," Naruto challenged his clone.

"I'm going to start packing for the trip," Naruto indicated the escort mission. "Hey, and D-Ranks for today? Just to fill my time for the rest of today?"

Tsunade snorted, then shoved a surprisingly large stack on her desk at him.

"Do D-Ranks to your heart's content, Naruto-gaki," she laughed at him. Then stopped laughing when he created another clone and took the whole stack of D-Ranks with him and his clones when he left.

It wasn't until midway through the afternoon that the Hokage finally heard that Naruto and his clones really _were_ doing every single D-Rank mission in the village for the day. There were a few complaints by some rather stupid people, but otherwise he actually did a good job, and on his own too! And if that weren't bad enough, that first clone of his really _did_ return with the treasure box inside of an hour! Fifty-seven minutes and thirty-nine seconds to be precise, but it was still done!

"What exactly have you been teaching him?" Tsunade asked Colin when she saw him later in the day.

The Immortal hadn't really answered, just smiled and shrugged at her before tempting her with sake.

_Hi No Kuni_

_En Route to Konoha_

_Four Days Later_

Naruto was walking along with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. The brat was finally gone!

The mission hadn't been too difficult. If anything it was more tedious and stressful due to the client himself. The nobleman's son was the perfect stereotype of what he was. A rich kid born with a silver spoon in his mouth and no concept of the reasoning behind people doing things without money. He was also a brat.

There had also been some kind of issue with the kid having a whole team of servants and bodyguards following him around in the shadows, which really distracted Naruto most of the way there. He hadn't been sure if all the people he detected hiding all around them had been the kid's servants, or enemies looking to kidnap the son of a noble. Turns out it was both when the servants decided to ransom the kid for money and kill him anyway because they'd had more than enough of the brat themselves. Naruto had other reasons than money for protecting the kid, and thus had no problem smacking down the lot of them.

Anyway, now he was finally back home, and the brat was far far far away from him with assurances from the brat's father that he would never be hired to look out for his kid ever again. Naruto could only hope that would prove to be true in the future.

He'd been on the road on his own for a day or so now, and had camped out in the trees to rest, and had rations and packages of instant ramen to sustain him. The roads were surprisingly sparse, but then again he wasn't on one of the main roads that saw all the traffic. He'd occasionally take a few minutes to practice with his swords just to keep himself loose and in practice. He probably should have had a contingent of shadow clones patrolling and scouting for him, but with the mission over with and since he was on his way home, he'd decided to let his guard down and enjoy the journey and surrounding nature.

Suddenly and without warning he froze as the Buzz hit him, hard.

For a minute he'd thought it might be Colin, which confused him, until a figure stepped out from behind the trees and revealed a tall, dark-haired man with yellow-brown skin and the dressings of a foreign mercenary. He already had his sword out and was grinning at the young blond Immortal. The Buzz quit the moment Naruto's eyes met this strangers and Naruto knew that this stranger too was an Immortal.

Naruto grinned, and was about to wave in greeting. After all, the only Immortal he'd met so far was Colin, his Teacher, and despite being told over and over that Immortals fought and killed each other more often than congregate in some secret brotherhood, he could be forgiven for his naivety, provided that is he survived this first mistake.

"Heh, too easy!" the Immortal snarled and lunged forward to chop Naruto's head off.

Naruto, startled, froze for a second. A second too long as the Immortal's sword slashed and struck on-target at his neck. Instead of a typical decapitation, however, there was an explosion of smoke, and a sliced disk of wood separated from the log Naruto had switched places with. Three seconds after that, a hail of kunai and shuriken struck solidly with a meaty thunk into the man's back.

"What the…?" Naruto startled from behind the man as he fell. That kind of attack should never have hit, he realized with a sour turn in his stomach. He'd become so used to facing other ninja that he'd forgotten that a lot of his most basic "jutsu" could kill an ordinary person without much effort. Even when he'd tried the same trick on Colin, the older Immortal seemed to be a step ahead of him and either dodged, or managed to deflect the projectiles with his katana.

Now, suddenly, here was this idiot that lunged at him as soon as he saw him, and then just stood there after he used _kawarimi_ and neither dodged nor deflected his counter-attack. Now he just lay there on the ground, dead. More confused than ever, as the few times he'd managed to 'kill' Colin, he'd been up on his feet and pulling out the weapons inside of a minute, Naruto waited five full minutes and the guy just lay there, not doing a thing.

Finally, bored more than anything else, Naruto retrieved his weapons from the Immortal's corpse, even taking the time to clean them, thoroughly. All together it took him fifteen minutes, and still the guy lay there, dead as a doornail. Shrugging, Naruto turned and resumed his journey back to Konoha.

Half an hour later, the Immortal revived, amazed to find himself still alive, and even more so when he saw that his quarry had moved on, staying on the same road with no signs of why he hadn't taken his head. It took him another three quarters of an hour to track him down again and attack the blond once more.

"That hurt you bastard!" he shouted the moment he was in range to lunge again.

Naruto didn't bother being subtle this time, forming a single shadow clone, and in the 1.5 seconds it took for the other Immortal to lunge forward while swinging his longsword, had formed a Rasengan and slammed it into the man's chest while he was still mid-air. Two hours later, he revived once more, and the sun was setting, and Naruto still had not taken his head.

In the middle of the night, which is around the time the unknown Immortal finally managed to track down Naruto once more, he stalked into the young Immortal ninja's campsite and held his sword at the ready, angry and wary of surprise attacks. Naruto was just sitting at the campfire, eating a package of instant ramen and was about halfway done with it by the time the man walked into his camp.

"Hey," he greeted, not even bothering to move from his position.

"You bastard!" the man screamed. "How dare you do that to me, _twice_ and walk away like that?!"

"You know, most people would probably take the hint," Naruto said before draining the last of the soup.

"What hint might that be?"

"That I can apparently kill you any time I want to without even trying."

The foreign Immortal paused at that and looked down at himself and then at the 'easy mark' he'd attacked twice now, and had instead been killed and left to revive on his own each time.

"Uh... how old are you anyway?" the man asked, sounding far less sure than before.

"Why should I tell you that?" Naruto bluntly remarked. "I don't even know your name! Mine's Uzumaki Naruto, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Akira, Sohara Akira," he said after a moment or two. "I am one hundred and fifty years old, and I have taken thirteen heads. How powerful are you that you can best me so easily?"

Naruto blinked, then shrugged and answered, "I'm 13 years old, 14 in a few months. I only turned Immortal a couple of months ago. Oh, and if the headband wasn't clue enough, I'm a ninja too."

"Nin-ja?" Akira repeated more slowly. Then he gulped and almost wet himself as he recalled some of the things he'd seen ninja do since arriving in the country. He'd tried to learn from the one or two willing to teach him, but he'd found it impossible to use this 'chakra' they went on and on about. The most he'd gotten out of it was an understanding of how ninjas did what they did.

Now, here was an Immortal, even a very young Immortal that _could_ use chakra and do all those ninja tricks... and he hadn't even fought seriously. If anything, Akira would say that both times he'd been killed, they were from gut reactions, automatic responses from being attacked. It made the 150 year old Immortal very, very nervous just being near this kid.

Then something else struck the man as odd. "Wait, what do you mean your only thirteen years old?!"

Naruto just shrugged and grinned, not really answering.

Akira shook himself and almost convinced himself that he was seeing things and that he needed to get his head checked. It was impossible for an Immortal to use chakra. But this man before him not only used chakra, he was a full ninja and an experienced one from the looks of things. He also claimed that he was only thirteen years old, and had only been Immortal for a couple of months. But from what Akira had sensed each time he felt this man's 'Buzz', he had enough power behind him that he had to be _at least_ one hundred years old! With a couple of heads under his belt to boot!

Then there was his attitude, carefree and unguarded, the signs of an experienced Immortal, but if he didn't know any better, he'd swear that he was just extremely naïve and a rookie to the Game. Finally, he just came to the (mistaken) conclusion that he was being had and this Immortal before him was just 'warning him off' and giving him a chance to keep his head. He almost took the hint and was about to run off when he looked over at the Immortal once again.

Dopey expression, trusting eyes, and an overall sense of wonder and optimism in his attitude.

There was no way this kid was an ancient Immortal!

"THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!" Akira screamed, charging straight ahead, sword held high.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up and blinked at him. Then his eyes shifted as what Akira had said finally processed through his brain. Gone was the happy-go-lucky off-duty ninja that was glad to be going home. In his place was the trained-by-a-Macleod Immortal Ninja.

Akira blinked after it was over. Not that it was really over, he realized after the fact. If anything, it was only just beginning. Because in the eyeblink it took Akira, a decent warrior that was fast on his feet and just as quick with his blade, to take five running steps, Naruto had discarded his overcoat, pulled out two swords, a katana and a dao, and put them and himself in the perfect position to block and counter Akira's charge.

By the sixth step, Akira's sword was on the ground out of his hand, and he was soon to follow, with Naruto first kicking him in the solar plexus with a straight left kick, his legs weakened with a strike from the back of his katana to the knees, and then a high kick to the chin from his right leg. All completed in a single motion, and faster than the older Immortal could even follow!

In the end, the arrogant headhunter found himself flat on his back, disarmed, a pair of mismatched swords at his neck, and no clue as to how he got there.

For the longest time, the two of them stayed in that position, Akira flat on his back on the ground, with Naruto's swords at his throat, and Naruto standing over him, holding the swords there. Finally, Naruto broke the stalemate, moving back a step and removing the dao, while keeping the katana in position.

"I'm not going to kill you," he finally said, startling the man on the ground enough that he almost cut off his own head with the katana inches from his neck. "I understand about the Game and everything, but I think there's another way. If you promise not to attack me anymore, I'll let you go."

The defeated man snarled and growled back at him, "And what if I don't? What are you going to do then? Huh? You've already proven that you won't kill me!"

"Exactly," Naruto intoned, channeling a bit of Macleod-sensei's intensity when training to make himself sound more serious and threatening. "I won't, not can't. You, however, have proven over and over that you _can't_ kill me. Even when my guard is down. Even when I let you close and you have the element of surprise. You can't even kill a newbie Immortal. Letting you go is no threat to me whatsoever. I suggest that you think about this long and hard."

_Konoha_

_Hokage Tower_

_One Day Later_

"You know, I knew it would take a lot to get the whole concept of the Game crammed into your skull. I accepted that," Colin Macleod was saying. Then he screamed at a sheepish grinning Naruto, "But I didn't think you were stupid enough to actually spar a headhunter trying to kill you and then bring him back to your home with you!!"

"Hey, he attacked a Konoha ninja," Naruto shrugged. "There's got to be, like, consequences to that sort of thing, right?"

Tsunade glared at the troublesome blond across from her desk, her hands folded before her face, hiding her expression. To everyone in the room, she looked royally pissed off and was about to explode. In actuality, she was just trying to get control of her smile before the giggles she was surpressing broke out. Jiraiya, standing next to her, behind her desk, finally replied, an unreadable expression on his own face, "Actually, yes, there are."

"See, I knew—" Naruto started to say, but Jiraiya interrupted by finishing his statement.

"Such people are usually put to death immediately, and then the ninja in question is investigated to make sure that it was necessary for the success of the mission. If, as in your case, the mission has already been completed, or the ninja is not on a mission when attacked, then it becomes a simple case of self-defense, where the one that attacked first is the one in the wrong."

"—it... Oh... uh, heh. Sorry, my bad," Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"So, what do we do with our prisoner?" Tsunade asked, finally getting control over her expressions.

Colin shrugged in response.

"I'm not a headhunter unless the person's done something to piss me off or attacked me first," he said. "And I've never even heard of this Akira guy. Normally I'd say Naruto has to take his head, but he already proved that he can defend himself without taking the man's life. At least against this particular opponent. He also neutralized him quite effectively, and a regular Immortal can't stand up to even the weakest of your active ninja. He must be only a hundred or so years old, if that much. You could keep him imprisoned for all eternity, or take his head to see what you can learn from his body. Capturing his Quickening is... inadvisable. If you want Konoha to still be here after you try that is."

"Why can't we just let him go?" Naruto naively asked.

Nobody bothered to answer the extremely stupid question.

"We could always give him to Ibiki," Jiraiya coldly suggested. "That, or give him to the Yamanaka Clan for... reeducation. Then there's always the final option. Give him to Danzo. As payment for staying out of your hair, for good."

"I would rather not," Tsunade restrained a shiver of revulsion. "The mere thought of Danzo having access to an Immortal warrior, regardless that he can never be a ninja, terrifies me to the bone."

"OK, seriously, why can't we just let him go? I've proved that he can't hurt me, and he'd have to be crazy to try again after all this!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I'm pretty sure he proved how crazy he was in trying to kill you after the third time you _accidentally_ killed him," Colin remarked. "Think about it for a minute Naruto. Letting him go is really not an option, no matter what else you, or he might say."

"For starters," Jiraiya stated, "he now knows the exact location of Konoha, your home village."

"He also knows your face, name, and at least three people that you know that are mortal, unlike yourself or Colin," Tsunade added to that.

"And he claimed to be a Headhunter," Colin finally said, "Which means he does anything and everything to win the Game, no matter what. If that means kidnapping your friends and holding them hostage, so be it. If that means leaking the exact location of Konoha to every single other ninja mercenary in the entire world, just so he can swoop in and take your head in the aftermath carnage, he'll do that too."

Naruto paled, his eyes going wide and his jaw dropping open.

"So," Colin finished up, "you see now why we can't let him go. And since you won't kill him, and I won't kill him, that makes figuring out what to do with him a great deal more difficult."

Naruto gulped, lowered his eyes and just nodded his head. He remained quiet for the rest of the debriefing, only speaking to answer direct questions, and after it was over, he quietly got up and left the room, never once say a word.

"Will he be OK?" Tsunade asked Colin.

The near-two-thousand-year-old Immortal just shrugged and answered, "Eventually. But it's best to keep an eye on him just the same. Just in case."

"I'll do it," Jiraiya volunteered, for once being quite serious about everything.

"Thank you," was all Tsunade could say, before returning to her office as the men went their own ways.

_Just Outside Konoha's Gates_

_That Night_

Two figures dropped to the ground from the trees just beyond the reach of the protective wall surrounding the hidden ninja village. One immediately dropped flat on the ground, like a sack of potatoes, and started struggling to get up. The other landed on his feet and stood at ease, waiting patiently for the other to get up.

The clouds shifted, and the nearly full moon shone down, illuminating the clearing between the trees. Naruto stood over a tied up and struggling Akira, a sheathed sword held in the blond's right hand. After a bit of struggling, and no small amount of help from a hidden knife on the older Immortal, Akira got out of his bindings and scrambled to his feet. Before he could say or do anything else, Naruto tossed him the sword. The sword was Akira's.

Naruto cast off his coat and stood ready with his katana, the dao strapped to his back in a simple harness.

"What is this?" Akira hissed at his tormentor.

"I've come to realize something," the young Immortal ninja told him, his voice somber and his gaze shadowed in the moonlight. "I told you the truth before. My Teacher only finished training me to be an Immortal not even two weeks ago. I was an ordinary genin only two months before that time. And while I've killed as a ninja, as a protector of my village before... I couldn't really understand killing in a duel."

Akira snorted derisively, "Then you're a fool."

"Yes, yes I was," Naruto agreed. "But no longer."

He looked up, his blue eyes shining with the emotions he felt, and his face taut with tension. "I, Uzumaki Naruto, challenge you, Sohara Akira to a duel. There Can Be Only One."

Akira smirked and threw off the sheath to his sword. "Looks like you're finally starting to get it. There Can Be Only One!"

The two saluted one another with their swords and then ran at each other, swords raised.

It was over that quickly.

Akira charged with a straight forward cavalry horizontal swing coming from his right hand side. Naruto came in low and fast, his blade in a two-handed grip, held by his right hip for a fast, upward moving slash. He also had superior reaction speed as he side-stepped Akira's swing, bypassing the blade, and only made his own cut after his opponent over-extended himself and was left wide open. Naruto watched as Akira's eyes went wide in open faced shock a bare instant before his blade severed the other Immortal's head from his body.

To an outside observer or the casual martial artist, it would be called flawless and perfect, an absolute work of art. To the trained observer and expert martial artist that specialized in kenjutsu and swordplay, it would be called efficient and satisfactory, if only barely. To Naruto, it was the worst thing that he had ever done, made worse by the knowledge that he would someday have to do it again and keep on doing it.

Akira's decapitated body took one final step, still moving with the last nerve impulses it had received and the momentum with which it had been moving. The head stayed stationary in the exact spot Naruto's blade had severed it for a heartbeat of time before gravity fully asserted itself and it fell to the ground and rolled around a bit before coming to a rest with the eyes and face pointed towards Naruto's own.

Then the Quickening started.

Naruto didn't even notice when the body began to glow with a ghostly energy, and he certainly wasn't paying attention as the wind picked up, too busy trying not to throw up from the action he had just committed. However, he could not ignore it when he felt the buzz start up again, only a hundred times more potent. So instead of a 'vibration' running throughout his body and chakra, it felt more like he was being struck by a thousand chakra-infused senbon needles all at once from head to toe. And thanks to his first C-Rank mission, he actually knew what that felt like beforehand.

He spun around and stared with wide-eyed fright as a mist of what looked like visible chakra flew through the air from Akira's dead body, heading straight for him. Naruto almost dodged it, trying to run away, but the mist went straight form him and it wasn't going to stop. When it hit, all thoughts of running fled the young Immortal's mind as his body was wracked with so much... raw sensation that his muscles locked up and it was all he could do just to remain on his feet!

The worst part of it, he thought in retrospect, was that he couldn't even define the sensation. It was like it was as much pleasure as it was pain. In fact, it was too much pleasure that it became pain, but at the same time it was an unbearable pain the became pleasure after a while. There was no way to define it except by what it was; the Quickening.

When the first bolt of energy struck, the raw sensation spiked in intensity, forcing a cry of shock and mixed pleasure/pain from Naruto's throat. Then the lightning started coming like fireworks on a celebration. A couple fires might have started in the trees, but not enough to start a forest fire. He never noticed however, as the bolts, starting off with just one or two strikes, started coming faster and faster, lasting longer and longer until it finally reached a high where it just never seemed to end!

Then Akira's body and head changed from their ghostly glow, to a very familiar red chakra glow, which colored the clearing in a bloody red light. This, Naruto did see, and he knew what it meant. Gritting his teeth, he shouted out loud as he raised his sword high above his head and concentrated his chakra on suppressing whatever rage and depression he might still be feeling. He could not allow the Fox, or whatever was left of it, any more influence on his life.

Almost as a consequence of this, a new round of lightning bolts struck between Naruto and his dead opponent's body. Where each bolt struck, the red chakra changed to electric-blue and then flashed a couple of times before vanishing into Naruto's barely standing form. The light show and wind did not die down until _all_ of the red chakra had been converted to blue and absorbed into Naruto's body.

When it ultimately ended, Naruto collapsed to his knees, still holding onto his sword, and gasping for breath, covered in sweat. The body lay where it had fallen, and would remain so until someone moved it.

Getting to his feet, Naruto cleaned and put away his swords, and spent the rest of the night doing exactly that. By the morning, he was back in his bed, and ANBU were reporting that a prisoner was not in his cell to the Hokage and her advisers. After hearing exactly which prisoner was missing, Colin, Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged grim nods and silent grins.

He was ready.

_TBC..._

Please Read And Review! If You Have Any Questions Or Comments, They Will Be Answered! : )

– Joshua "The Evil Guy"


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